Pigs in China carry a flu virus with potential to cause pandemic in humans, researchers warned last night.
As many as one in ten workers on pig farms were found to have antibodies against the new H1N1 virus – a kind of flu virus associated with bird flu.
Researchers studied 179 swine flu viruses found in pigs in ten Chinese provinces in the last decade.
They say that G4 EA H1N1 has similar features to the strain of flu that caused the 2009 swine flu pandemic in humans.
The research, by scientists at the China Agricultural University, Beijing, was reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers say: "The results suggest that G4 EA H1N1 has the potential for pandemic spread in humans and that measures to control this virus in pigs and closely monitor working populations should be swiftly implemented."
Prevalent Eurasian avian-like H1N1 swine influenza virus with 2009 pandemic viral genes facilitating human infection. 29 June 2020
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